A Chance at Freedom
by InkDrinker
Summary: Six kids, another flock, escape from a School in Texas. What discoveries await them outside of the only home they've ever known? Join Nico, Alexis, Cassie, Brendan, Nikki, and Mitchel for another incredible ride.
1. Chapter 1: Misery in a Dog Crate

**So ten minutes turned into two days. Sorry to the few people who actually read this, haha. Maybe more people will read it soon. It doesn't really matter to me, since I'm just doing this for fun. Originally, I wasn't even going to post this, but I figured some people might enjoy it, haha. :) Anyway... I forgot to mention Nikki's powers in the bio. She, like Nico, can read minds, but she tends to use it more often than he does.**

**Oh, yeah. Yes, there is a bit of cursing in this chapter. It's in context, though. You'll see when you get there. Just thought I'd warn you. So if that kind of stuff offends you, you have been warned. **

**I know I'm totally jinxing myself by saying this, but expect the next chapter soon. I won't say how soon, in case it doesn't end up happening that way, but soon. I'm gonna start typing it right after I post this, so maybe that will help with my really bad updating problem. Read my other stories to see what I mean. XD Review!**

Nico POV

The scientist deposited me unmercifully into my too-small dog crate. He locked it and walked away. I glared at him until he was out of sight, then I automatically turned and scanned the cages around me, checking on all of my flock.

Mitchel lay curled up in his cage, asleep. He looked exhausted. A huge purple bruise adorned his small cheek, and he had a couple of deep gashes in his arm.

Cassie, and Alexis, her twin, were talking quietly in the cage they shared. The whitecoats only considered them one experiment, so they were forced to share everything, including their cage and food.

Across the room from me, hard-faced Nikki was looking off into space, deep in thought, as usual. Her eyes were squinted slightly, and her hands were clenched tightly into fists. She was thinking about Jasper. I knew that even without using my mind-reading.

I looked over at Brendan, whose cage was next to Nikki's. He shot me a small grin.

"Hey, Nico. What'd they do?" In response, I held up my left arm. On the back of my hand was a small scab where they had drawn blood. He nodded sympathetically.

I sighed, hunching down in my cage. We'd been here, the School -- in Texas, I think -- for as long as I could remember. Our whole lives. We're a motley crew, I guess. See, we're the only fully-intelligent, English-speaking, mostly-successful experiments in our room. We'd been friends for most of our short lives. I was the leader, I suppose. I hadn't been elected or anything, it just happened that way. Maybe it was because I was the oldest, or the strongest, or maybe I was just leader material. Whatever the reason, the rest of the flock looked up to me, and I'd rather die than let them get hurt.

Just then, a whitecoat opened the door and walked in, interrupting my thoughts. Immediately, every experiment's gaze was on him. Mitchel snapped awake, Cassie and Alexis stopped talking, and Nikki turned to stare straight at him, in that creepy way she had. Some kids whispered, their eyes shut, some crossed their fingers. We all prayed that the whitecoat wasn't coming for us.

The scientist pretended not to notice. He stopped in front of Alexis and Cassie's cage.

"I want that one," he said, glancing at his clipboard.

Cassie's face turned cold. She glared at the guy. I knew what was coming next. The twins hated the way the whitecoats treated them, like they were one person.

"Which one?" she said icily. "You know, there's two of us in here." Alexis shrank back nervously, the less confrontational of the two.

The whitecoat frowned, looking surprised at Cassie's response. You'd think they'd learn by now. Then his gaze hardened into anger.

"You don't talk to me like that," he said.

"Yeah," Cassie retaliated, "actually, I do. And I also cuss. So go to fucking hell, you fucking bastard." I winced. That kid cussed like a sailor.

The whitecoat looked shocked. In one swift motion, he opened their cage. But before he could do anything, Cassie had jabbed him in the eye and bitten his arm. He shrank back, crying out, his arm dripping blood. He slapped Cassie across the face, and she sat back, seething.

"You'll pay for that," the whitecoat muttered, examining his arm.

"Oh, will I?" Cassie asked, then lunged for him again. But this time, he was ready. He stuck a syringe into her arm, sedating her. Then he carried the limp Cassie and the struggling Alexis away. Brendan watched them go with silent indignation written all over his face. Lexi was his best friend.

Life here was awful. We were treated like objects, equipment. Sometimes death seemed better than carrying on life here, but we had no choice. This was misery. Misery in a dog crate.


	2. Chapter 2: Escape?

**Forgot to mention this... Each chapter will be in another character's POV. This one is Alexis. Oh, and I forgot a disclaimer as well, so... Maximum Ride is the property of the wonderful, amazing JP, not Inky. :(**

Yay! I actually managed to update when I said I would! Yay!

I decided to keep up the bios for a bit longer, not that it really matters. :)

Review pleasers!! :D

Alexis POV

"You shouldn't have done that," I said quietly, a while after we had returned to our cage.

"What?" Cassie asked, looking at me.

"You know -- bit the whitecoat."

"Why the hell not? In case you didn't notice, I was _defending _you."

"Yeah, but... you got hurt." I gestured to her face, where a bruise was slowly forming.

"Lexi, they treat us like dirt. They treat all of us like dirt. I figured, why shouldn't we give them a taste of their own medicine?"

I hesitated, then nodded, and sat back. I understood, but I didn't get how she could be so brave. These people could, _would_ hurt us, without a moment's hesitation. To them, we were experiments, not people.

Brendan looked at me. His cage was right across from ours. "Hey, you okay?" he asked. I nodded.

I turned away, trying to hide the tears forming in my eyes. Cassie didn't notice, or at least pretended not to.

Nikki and Mitchel were both gone from their cages. I wondered what horrible thing the scientists were doing to them, then shuddered, trying not to think about it.

Just then, a door opened, and Jeb Batchelder strolled in. All the kids in the room sat back, relieved. Jeb was -- dare I say it? -- a nice whitecoat. He didn't actually work here, but he stopped by occasionally for whatever reason.

As he neared our cage, he caught my gaze out of the corner of his eye... and _winked_. I blinked, surprised, then heard a light "clink" and looked down at the ground.

Jeb had dropped his keys.

I looked back up at Jeb, expecting him to lean down and pick them back up. But he didn't. He just kept on walking, like nothing had happened. I looked back at the keys, bewildered, then back up at Jeb, but he had already left the room.

I glanced at Cassie. Her eyes were wide, staring at the keys in shock, as were Nico's and Brendan's. We all knew that the keys could unlock the dog crates.

Cassie looked at me. "You have to try." I knew what she meant. My telekinesis power. It rarely worked, and I had to be _really_ concentrating. But she was right. I had to try.

I nodded, and squeezed my eyes shut. Everyone in the room fell silent, allowing me to focus. I concentrated as hard as I could, then opened my eyes. Nothing. My shoulders slumped. We had no chance. Any minute, another whitecoat would walk in and pick up the keys, and we would be stuck here.

Cassie put her hand on my shoulder. "Try again. You can do it." I closed my eyes again tentatively. The room was deathly silent. All eyes were on me, which wasn't exactly helping with the stress. I focused again, putting all my effort into moving the keys. I held my breath, then heard a slight jingle. I opened my eyes in shock. The keys had slid about two inches. Another couple inches and they would be close enough to reach. I concentrated again. The keys slid another couple inches.

Cassie reached out through the bars of the cage. She stretched out her skinny fingers. I watched, holding my breath. She was barely touching the keys... she just managed to loop a finger through the ring! Cassie drew the keys quickly into our cage, fingers shaking, looking amazed. The room was totally, completely silent, and Cassie just sat there, staring, astonished, at the keys in her hand.

Then she threw her arms around my neck, and the room was filled with ecstatic cheers and clapping.

We were gonna escape!


	3. Chapter 3: Newfound Freedom

**Yay! I'm updating.**

Dylan: Yipee.

Me: Oh, shut up. Yeah, I have a muse now! Yay, Dylan!

Dylan: I can't contain my excitement.

Me: I'm gonna ignore you now.

Dylan: Be my guest.

Me: So anyway... Sorry I haven't updated in a while. After I post this, I'm gonna move the bios to my profile. Also, please vote in my poll! It's on my profile, for some of the slower people out there.

Dylan: Like you?

Me: ...I think Dylan's in a state of denial. Anyway, review, please!

Cassie POV

I couldn't believe it. After years of failed attempts at escape, we were finally gonna do it. It would work this time. I was sure of it.

I had tried countless times before to escape, and it never worked. They weren't exactly serious attempts; I hadn't really known what I would _do_ if I actually managed to escape. No, it was more of a way of challenging myself, of reminding myself that there was a better world outside of this hellhole, and one day we would see it. Today was that day.

I couldn't help but wonder about Jeb. Had he dropped his keys on purpose, and if so, why? What made us so special that he would let us go? He didn't work here, so he was probably the only one who knew about this. And how had he known that Alexis's power would work this time? It had only worked two or three times in her entire life, so what made him so sure it would work now?

Alexis sat at the back of the cage that we would soon be released from. She smiled every so often, staring off into space, imagining what it would be like once we were free. I wondered, too. There were so many places to go, so many things to see. Where could we start? It was an amazing prospect, and I found myself grinning along with Alexis.

We had developed a plan. We would wait until nightfall, when all the whitecoats had already left, then we would unlock the doors, let ourselves out, and give the keys to a girl whose cage was above ours. She seemed like the most intelligent of the other experiments, and we were sure we could trust her with the lives of the rest of the experiments. Meanwhile, we would leave this place. Forever.

A couple hours later, a woman walked in, holding Mitchel and Nikki. Mitchel waved at me slightly as she walked by, and I smiled at him.

The woman turned around to leave, and I quickly hid the keys behind my back and smiled innocently up at her. She gave me a suspicious look, but left the room.

Once she was gone, I pulled the keys from behind my back where Mitchel and Nikki could see. Mitchel gasped, and Nikki's eyes widened. I smiled.

Soon after that, a man walked through and turned off the light, which meant that they were locking up for the night. Alexis and I shared a look, and she giggled excitedly. We gave the rest of the flock meaningful glances, and they all nodded. Soon, we would be rid of this awful place.

We waited for a half hour after the man walked through so we could be sure that they were all gone, then we slowly pulled out the keys. There was a small moment of silence, then, with shaking hands, I reached my hand through the bars and slid the key slowly into the lock. I held my breath and turned.

The lock clicked, and the door swung open.

Alexis looked like her face was about to split in half, her grin was so huge. We climbed out of our cage and moved to Brendan's. Then we unlocked Nico, Mitchel, and Nikki's cages.

For a moment, we just stood there, relishing our newfound freedom. Then I slid the keys into the other girl's cage. She grinned at me, and I smiled back.

Mitchel looked around the room and quietly said, "Good luck." Alexis ruffled his brown hair.

Then we were outta there. Nico led the way as we ran through the halls. Eventually, we got to the exit and stopped.

"What if there are alarms?" Brendan asked voicing what we were all thinking.

Nico hesitated, then said, "We'll just have to take that chance." He slowly pushed the door open and braced himself.

Nothing. He let out a sigh of relief, then waved the rest of us out the door. He slowly shut the door behind us.

_We were free._


	4. Chapter 4: Holiday Inn

**Waaaah! T.T I feel soo bad for taking this long to update. I hope you don't hate me... =[ School is finally over, so I can write again! Yay! :D Okay... So this chapter is in Brendan's POV. Oh, and also. I'm planning on introducing another character in the next few chapters. My friend thought of her, and she fits nicely into the storyline. So she'll show up in a couple chapters, I think.**

And finally, here is the next chapter. Sorry you had to wait so long for it. =]

Brendan POV

We couldn't stop there. We had to get as far away from the School as possible. So we ran. We ran almost seven miles before we had to stop to rest. Poor Mitchel was gasping for breath, so Cassie picked him up and put him on her shoulders. He rested his chin on the top of her head.

"We need somewhere to stay the night," Nico muttered, looking around. I glanced around us. We were surrounded by trees on all sides, but I could see light coming through the thick wall of trees to our left.

I pointed in that direction. "Maybe there's something that way." Nico nodded, and we walked toward the clearing. When we broke free of the trees, we saw a small town there and a road leading into it. We started to follow the road.

A few buildings down was a Holiday Inn. "We wouldn't be able to afford it, anyway," Nico said gloomily. But right as he said it, a man dressed in a green uniform ran from the doors of the hotel.

"Are you... Nico?" he asked, glancing at the rest of us one by one.

"That's me," Nico said, sounding unsure.

The man pulled an envelope from his suit and beckoned us inside the building. We stayed where we were.

"A man stopped by this morning - said his name was Jeb, or something like that. He told me that when a group of six children walked by, to give them this and let them stay in the hotel for a few nights for free. I assume he was talking about you?"

I glanced at Alexis in shock. Cassie's eyebrow was raised. "I think so, sir," Nico answered slowly. The man smiled and handed Nico the envelope.

"All right then. Come inside, you must be burning up out here." As we followed him inside, he said, "My name is Darren. If you need anything at all, just tell me." He smiled at us, then led us up to a room on the second floor. "Here you are. I'm afraid you'll have to share beds, but I hope everything else is satisfactory."

We went inside, and Darren left. Alexis sat down on one of the beds and looked around. I sat next to her.

"Oh. My. God," she and Cassie said at the same time - scary how they do that sometimes - and Alexis lay back on the bed. "We're free!" she said happily. Then she started laughing. She giggled at first, then started laughing uncontrollably. I couldn't help it - I started laughing with her. Then Cassie joined in, and soon all of us - even Nikki - were bent over laughing, for no reason at all.

Once our laughter died down a little, I stood up and started looking around. I'd never been anywhere besides the School before. It was amazing.

I found myself looking at Alexis. She had closed her eyes, and her hair formed a small halo around her head. She looked... No. I needed to stop thinking things like that. She was my best friend, and anyway, she didn't like me. Of _course_ she didn't like me. What was there to like, anyway? I'm just annoying. I don't even have any powers.

But still. It's hard to be depressed when you just broke out of the place you've been kept all your life, a prison. I hoped we would never have to go back.


	5. Chapter 5: Dreams

**Nikki POV**

We went to bed immediately after getting to our room, not even waiting to eat dinner, despite our growling stomachs.

That night, I dreamed of Jasper.

The nightmares were getting worse. Used to be, I was running through the School at night, chasing Jasper. We were playing tag. Right when I was about to tag him, I would find myself trapped in a cage, with Jasper nowhere to be seen.

Now, we were still running, but Jasper wasn't running from me. He was running with me. And we weren't playing tag. We were being chased by scientists. We would reach the doors of the School, close enough to see the sunshine outside, and then I was stuck in a cage, just like before. But Jasper was captured, ensnared by the hands of the scientists. We would reach out to each other as he was dragged away, but I could never quite touch his fingers. It was terrible.

I woke up breathing hard and drenched in sweat. I forced my breathing to calm and turned away from Mitchel, who I was sharing the bed with. I didn't want to wake anyone up.

I cared for the rest of the flock a lot more than they thought. I don't think they know, but I would give my life to prevent them getting hurt. I can't let the same thing happen to them as did to Jasper. If it did, I don't think I'd be able to live any longer.

I guess you want to know what happened to Jasper. To be honest, even I don't really know. All I know is, one day he was there, one day he wasn't. Simple as that. I knew he was dead. Not just because it was the obvious conclusion, but because I just... knew. You know how they say that when a loved one dies, you can feel it in your heart? It's true. I've felt it myself. And you know the worst part?

I didn't get to say goodbye.

**Yeah, I know it's REALLY short. I just wanted to give an insight into Nikki's mind before the story really gets going. The next chapter will probably be a bit filler-ish, but that's because I've got something planned for the next chapter. After that, the flock will probably be on the road, and then the story will start. (To be honest, I'm still not sure what all is gonna happen, and in what order.)**

But yeah, that's a rough outline of what's gonna happen in the next few chapters. I'll try and update soon! :D


	6. Chapter 6: Complimentary and Food

**Mitchel POV**

I was awoken the next morning by a set of feet bouncing on my bed.

"Guys!" Brendan cried excitedly. "Mitchel! Nikki! Cassie! Alexis! Nico! Get up! It's our first full day of freedom!" I rubbed my eyes sleepily and grinned up at Brendan.

"Brendan..." Nikki growled. He slid quickly off our bed.

Nikki yawned and sat up. Alexis did the same.

"Ugh... just five more minutes..." Cassie grumbled. Alexis rolled her eyes, sprang up, grabbed her arm and pulled her to a sitting position. Cassie glared at her and lay back down.

I hauled myself up and sat cross-legged on our bed, my tail curled around me casually. I stretched, then climbed out of bed.

Nico stood up and clapped his hands. "Come on, guys. Let's get up, find something to eat."

"Hear, hear!" Brendan cried. I jumped up on him piggy-back style, catching him by surprise. He laughed and started parading around the room.

"You heard the man! Up! Up!" I shouted. Cassie groaned. Brendan grabbed her by the arms and pulled her out of bed. I giggled.

Once everyone was finally up, Nico started to open the door, but paused. "Guys. None of us have ever been out of the School. We don't know what it's like in the real world, but I'm pretty sure most people would freak if they found out... what we are. So for now, try not to draw any attention to yourselves, and keep anything that would give us away hidden." We nodded. I made sure my long tail was tucked into the back of my jeans before following the others out the door.

I grabbed Cassie's hand and smiled up at her, and she ruffled my hair.

When we got to the lobby, the man from yesterday, Darren, greeted us with a huge smile. "There's breakfast in the cafe. It's complimentary. Just go through those doors over there." He pointed to our right.

"Thanks," Nico said.

As we were walking to the door, Nikki muttered, "Is it healthy for a man to be that cheerful?" Alexis shrugged and Brendan laughed.

We opened the door to the cafe and were greeted by the welcoming smells of bacon, eggs, and coffee. There were two long tables full of food off to one side, and tables for people to sit and eat at scattered across the room.

"Ooh," Cassie muttered. "Classy."

Brendan grabbed my arm and pulled me forward. He grabbed two plates, handed me one, and we were off, shoveling mountains of eggs onto our plates, a dozen strips of bacon each, and a handful of strawberries. We each grabbed glass, filled it from the cooler of orange juice in the corner and sat down at a table. The others weren't far behind us.

We were the only ones in the room so far, which was probably a good thing judging by the loud munching noises all of us were making around our food. We weren't used to having this much to eat, and we weren't about to let it go to waste.

I knew we needed more food than regular humans - I'd heard the whitecoats talk about it lots of times - I just hoped it wouldn't be a problem for us or anyone else.

"Aah, two words that go great together: complimentary and food," Brendan grinned, helping himself to another forkful of eggs.

By the time we were full, we'd had seconds, thirds _and_ fourths, and the room was about half full of people. Some were families, probably on vacation, and some were men in smart blue suits. They all sat at the same circle of tables, and they were laughing loudly. I wondered what they were doing here.

I noticed some men looking at us from across the room. They were some of the men in the suits. Maybe they'd noticed how much we'd eaten, I wasn't sure, but either way, they made me uncomfortable. I looked quickly down at my plate and kicked my leg out under the table. I made contact with someone's shin.

"Ouch!" Nico yelped. "What was that f-"

"Hey, Nico?" Nikki muttered. "Maybe we should get out of here." She nodded slightly to the men in the corner. A couple of them had begun to get up. They were smiling creepily.

Nico glanced toward them out of the corner of his eye, then nodded. "Come on, guys."

We stood up, putting down our glasses and silverware.

We started walking to the door.

Just as the men started to run.

**Dun dun dunnnn! Okay, so I lied about this being a filler. I actually didn't have this planned, but I got the idea halfway through the chapter. Anyway, I'm really sorry about not updating. I have a very good excuse... I just have to think of it. Heh heh heh. Anyway, I actually want to say thanks to akidyouwish for reminding me that I needed to update this. Hahaha thanks. :P Anyway, review!**


	7. Chapter 7: Erasers!

**Nico POV**

We set off on a run, knocking chairs and tables out of our way. We burst through the door, the Erasers - yes, _Erasers,_ more on that later - right on our heels.

We sprinted through the lobby and made for the front doors. Darren, upon seeing the Erasers, gave a shriek and dove, cowering, under his desk, which would've been comical if we weren't, y'know, running for our lives.

I sprang through the front door, quickly noting the the back alley between the hotel and the dollar store next door, jammed with a few Dumpsters. I ducked behind one of the Dumpsters and gestured for the others to do the same.

We'd had a head start, so it took a couple seconds for the Erasers to make it out the front door, long enough for us to completely conceal ourselves behind the Dumpster. The Erasers looked around, confused - obviously not the brightest hybrids out there. One of them pointed down our alley, and my heart plummeted into my stomach. But then another one shook his head and pointed the other way, down the street, further into the town. I couldn't hear what they were saying, but it seemed like the others agreed - they thought we had run in the other direction.

They sprinted off. The one who'd known we were down here lingered for a few seconds, snuffling, taking a few quiet, tentative steps into the alley. I shrank back, holding tightly to Mitchel's wrist, not daring to breathe. The Eraser looked around suspiciously, then took off after the others.

We sat in silence for at least five more minutes before we allowed ourselves to move. I breathed a sigh of relief.

Erasers - half men, half wolf. They have the ability to - and it makes me shudder just to think of it - _morph_, to change freely from human to wolf. When they're in their human forms, they seem normal - well, almost normal, with close to perfect features, smooth, beautiful voices that could convince any man to stop breathing if they want him to. But when they're in wolf form, they develop a hideous snout, sharp fangs, long ragged claws. No matter what form they're in, their eyes always contain a deadly gleam. I'd seen Erasers being trained enough times at the School to know that they were not to be taken lightly.

I did a quick head count before standing up slowly. Brendan slapped my back enthusiastically. "Nice hiding place, bro." I scowled at him.

Mitchel looked nothing short of freaked out, Nikki was a bit paler than normal, and Alexis's face was white as stone, her eyes wide. Cassie was having to support her because her knees were buckling. I could foresee this being a problem, since I didn't expect this would be our first encounter with danger, and Alexis couldn't get freaked out every time. She'd have to learn to fight or we'd all be in danger.

Cassie took a deep breath and steadied herself, making sure Alexis didn't fall down in the process.

"Everyone okay?" I asked.

"I'm good," Brendan answered with a grin.

"Okay here," Cassie said, speaking for both herself and her twin, who still seemed too shaky to speak. "Mostly."

"I'm fine," Nikki said.

"Me too," Mitchel replied bravely.

"All right then," I said, trying to figure out what we should do now. We couldn't very well return to the hotel. I was glad for the first time that we didn't have any belongings other than the clothes on our backs. And the envelope Darren had given us yesterday - the envelope! Darren had said it was from Jeb, right? I'd been so preoccupied with everything that had gone on that I'd completely forgotten about it.

The others were obviously waiting for me to tell them what we were doing now. Now I was sure that, by some unspoken agreement, I was the leader of our little group. I nodded and fished around in my back pocket for the folded-up envelope. I un-crumpled it, tore it open, and peered curiously inside.

When I pulled out the piece of paper that was inside, a bunch of green pieces of paper fell out. I looked down at them, confused. Nikki picked them up.

"It's money," she announced.

I raised my eyebrows. "How much?"

Nikki glanced through the slips of paper. "Somewhere around... a hundred dollars, I guess?" She looked up at me. Brendan gave a low whistle.

Nikki handed me the money. It was surprisingly soft against my skin. The only other time I'd seen money was several years ago, when I was about twelve. Some stupid whitecoat had decided it was a good idea to give us - me, Cassie, Alexis, and Brendan - dollar bills, for cooperating with some experiment. We hadn't exactly known what to do with the money, and after a while we'd just thrown it away.

I shifted my attention to the other piece of paper. Brendan looked over my shoulder.

"I can't read this," I sighed, frustrated.

"Me neither," Brendan said.

All of our heads swiveled toward Alexis. She scowled.

Lexi was the only one among us who could read. What happened was, when the twins were nine, Alexis had decided she wanted to learn to read. I think it was a sort of pride thing, like she wanted to prove herself. She'd never really been much of a fighter, while Cassie had. So Alexis wanted wanted to prove that she could do other things.

So one day, she singled out one whitecoat and demanded that she give her reading lessons. It was actually kind of a big deal, since Alexis had hardly ever spoken to a whitecoat, and up until then, the word "demand" hadn't been in her vocabulary. But she was very firm about this; it was quite impressive.

Eventually, the whitecoat agreed - on one condition. For as long as Alexis was receiving reading lessons, she would have to undergo more experimentation than normal and submit to whatever the whitecoats had in store for her, no matter how vigorous. Alexis gladly agreed.

So now Alexis could read most words and sentences, but not all.

She took the paper from my hands and scanned it, frowning. She was still pale, but was recovering quickly. "Okay, um... I'll try my best, guys, but I don't understand some of this." She took a deep breath, looked up self-consciously, then read, "Dear Ni... Nicolas, Alexis, C-Cassandra, Brendan, Nikole, and Mitchel, if you are reading this, that means that you have s- I don't understand this word. S... suss..."

"Successfully?" I supplied.

"Yeah. Yeah, I think so. Successfully ex... escaped the School. I'm very happy for all of you. The reason I as- I know this - _assisted_ you is b-because I think you would be very helpful in a... project of mine. If you can, please meet me twenty miles north of Sp-springton, the town you're in now. You should be able to get a map from Darren. There is no hurry; we have time to wait. I h-hope to see you soon. Signed, Jeb B-batchelder."

I frowned. "'We have time to wait.' Who is _we?_" Alexis shrugged, rubbing her eyes, looking wiped from reading that much.

"Nice job, Lexi," Brendan said, smiling at her. She grinned at him.

Looked like we had a long day ahead of us.

**Hi! Soo I've decided to start updating on Tuesdays and Fridays. I hope this will help to keep me updating often... I've been having trouble with that. :P But this chapter was considerably longer than I'm used to, and I'm gonna try and stick to longer chapters from now on. :D Also, the first six chapters were in each of the flock's POV in descending order (Nico, Alexis, Cassie, etc.) but now I'm going to just choose the POV for each chapter, depending on what I want to happen in that chapter. So the next one is probably also gonna be Nico, but the next one probably Alexis. :) Okay... Review please? Oh, and vote in my poll to find out who is your favorite flock member in this story! Alternatively you could put it in a review, I really don't care, I'll just add them in. In a few chapters I'll announce the winner and they will receive a special feature in my AN and possibly become my muse! Okay, bye now! -waves ecstatically-**


	8. Chapter 8: Second in Command

**Nico POV**

I rubbed my forehead, trying to get my many thoughts in order. I turned the map every which way, but it didn't make sense. How could we have taken a wrong turn if we were traveling in a _straight line?_

After we'd figured out what Jeb's letter said, we'd followed his advice and cautiously returned to Darren, who was sitting on the floor underneath his front desk shivering when we walked in. Once we'd finally coaxed him out of his hiding place, he'd shakily given us a map, wished us luck, and proceeded to go up the stairs without another word. I had a feeling that man would need a _lot_ of therapy.

We'd walked into the town and bought some necessities - six sleeping bags, enough food to feed six ravenous hybrids, a backpack for each of us, and a couple magazines to read when we got tired and stopped. I'd ended up using up most of our money.

Then we'd trekked a couple miles north and, at some point, turned... west, I think? Which is weird because I didn't remember turning at all. You've gotta give me some credit here, though - I'd never so much as looked at a map in my entire life. So it was rather impressive we'd even made it this far.

"Let me see," Cassie said, grabbing the map from my hands.

"Sure, you can see it," I muttered, folding my arms impatiently. Cassie flipped the map completely over.

"It goes like this, idiot."

"No, it doesn't!" Brendan argued, snatching the map from her. "It's like this."

"You don't know what you're talking about." She rolled her eyes.

"You don't know what _you're_ talking about!"

"You guys," Alexis said. "Let Nico work it out."

"Stay out of this, Alexis!" Cassie shouted. Lexi scowled at her. Soon they were all shouting at each other at the top of their lungs.

"HEY!" I yelled, quieting them all. "You might wanna scream a bit louder, I don't think the Erasers heard us yet." Alexis looked down at her feet. "Now. I'm in charge. I get to decide which way the map goes. And I decide -" I took the map from Brendan, "- that it goes this way. However - I think we should stop here for today and then keep walking tomorrow. Jeb said that we didn't have to hurry, and it'll give us some time to figure out the map."

They all nodded. I saw Cassie glaring at Brendan out of the corner of my eye. "And no more fighting. We don't want the Erasers to find us again. It was too close the first time."

We all settled down a bit. I knew it might not be a good idea to build a fire right now, since the smoke might alert the Erasers to our presence, so we just hung out in a clearing near there. Mitchel, Brendan, Cassie, and Alexis ran off to explore with a warning from me to be careful and quiet, so now it was only Nikki and me. I laid out my sleeping bag and pulled out one of the magazines. I couldn't read it, of course, but I just looked at the pictures.

After a while, I noticed a sound. I looked up and saw Nikki sitting against a tree, humming a song that sounded vaguely familiar and looking at something she was holding in her hands.

I got up and sat next to her. "Hey." She looked up in alarm. "What you got there?"

"Oh - nothing. It's nothing." She tried to set it down next to her where I couldn't see it, but I grabbed it playfully from her.

"What is this, huh?" My grin faded when I saw what it was. I was holding a small, soft black feather.

"Is this -"

"Yeah. It's - it was Jasper's." She looked away.

I looked at her with pity. Her brother Jasper, a human-bird hybrid, had died when he was eleven years old. She'd been only seven.

I realized where I'd heard that song before. A long time ago, when she was little, Jasper had sung it to her whenever she couldn't sleep.

I sighed. "I think Jasper would be proud of you now. Having escaped the School."

She looked at me. "You think so?"

"Definitely." Then I thought of something, and my face lit up. It was so perfect.

"Hey, Nikki. I'm in charge right? I'm the leader?"

"Yeah, I guess."

"Well - leaders need a second-in-command, right? Someone to cover for them, help them out with everything?"

"Yeah..." she said slowly.

"Well. How'd you like to be my second-in-command?"

She raised her eyebrows. "Really? Why me?"

"Well, think about it. There's Alexis, who couldn't stand the sight of the Erasers today. Then there's Cassie, who argues with everyone. And Brendan, well, Brendan's Brendan, I guess." She giggled, and I felt a little bit proud. It took a lot to make Nikki laugh. "Then there's Mitchel, who's little. You, you're strong, smart, and with a little bit of help from me, I think you'd make a great second-in-command."

She smiled at me, a real smile, and I realized just how adorable she is when she smiles. "You should do that more often. Smile, I mean."

She looked down. "Thanks, Nico. I'll try really hard to be a good second-in-command."

I grinned and ruffled her hair. "No problem, kiddo."

**I know, I know; it's late. But at least I updated. :) Please tell me what you thought of it, I was actually pretty proud of this chapter. :D See ya!**


	9. Chapter 9: Cries from the Forest

**Alexis POV**

We slept in the clearing that night. Curled up in my green sleeping bag next to Cassie in her purple one, I was genuinely happy. It was cold out here and the ground was covered in sticks and rocks that dug into my back, but I would take this over a dog crate any day.

I fell asleep quickly and woke the next morning expecting to see the bright fluorescent lights above my head, smell the antiseptic scent in the air that made me shudder, and feel the stuffy air in my cramped dog crate.

What I found instead surprised me for a moment. The bright sun beaming down on me, the light, sweet smell of the forest around me, and the crisp, cool air of our clearing. I then remembered everything that had happened the past few days, and I grinned and sat up, stretching.

I glanced around and saw only Brendan awake. He was lying in his sleeping bag with his eyes staring thoughtfully into the bright blue cloudless sky. I clambered out of my sleeping bag and went to crouch next to Brendan, startling him.

"Morning," he said, smiling at me.

"Morning."

"Hey, Lexi... Do you think I'm annoying?"

The question surprised me. "Yes, very," I replied playfully.

He scowled at me. "No, really."

I blinked. "No. Of course not. I mean... sometimes you can get a bit... _energetic_... but I don't think you're annoying." I paused. "Why? Do _you_ think you're annoying?"

He shook his head. "I guess not." He grinned. "It doesn't matter. Anyway, what's up? You excited about... everything?"

I nodded happily. "I wonder why Jeb wants us, though. It's not like we've got much experience with... well, _anything_."

He shrugged. "Who cares? The man _saved _us. I'd take a bullet for him if I had to." My eyes widened in alarm. "Not literally, of course," he added gently.

Just then Cassie sat up, and soon everyone was up. We each ate a few Poptarts to curb our hunger then set off. Nikki, whom Nico had officially titled "second-in-command," had helped Nico to figure out the map and now we knew which way to go. I hoped everything would go smoothly from here on out.

Unfortunately, it wasn't long before something very _un-_smooth occurred.

We'd been trekking along for maybe an hour. Nico and Nikki were in the front, glancing at the map every now and then. Cassie was walking with Mitchel riding on her shoulders, and Brendan and I were in back, talking and laughing. I took a swig from my water bottle.

Suddenly a noise in the distance made us all stop and look up in alarm. It had sounded like... almost like a _scream._ But that couldn't be right. We were in the middle of nowhere. We hadn't seen a house at all since we'd left the town. So who could this be, out here in the middle of the woods? _And why were they screaming?_

"Probably just some campers or something, playing around," Nico said uncertainly. We continued along slowly.

No more than five minutes later, the noise came again, much closer this time, making our ears perk up. It was clear now - this was no camper. There was a person here that needed help.

We broke into a run, traveling in the direction we thought the noises had come from. Before long, we could hear heavy breathing and small cries of pain. Tell-tale signs of a fight. Nico stopped dead, and I ran into him. "What?" I said urgently.

"There." He pointed through the trees. I peered uncertainly in that direction. What I saw nearly made my heart stop.

There was a girl here. Blood ran down her cheek, she had no shoes, and her hair was a tangled mess. She was holding her own against _six_ Erasers. Three more lay passed out at her feet.

And she didn't look like she could hold out much longer.


	10. Chapter 10: Cosaque

**Alexis POV**

I started to run forward, but Nico held me back. "What the heck, Nico? Let me go, we have to help her!" I struggled against his grasp on my arm.

"Lexi, think about it. Between all of us, we could barely take on two Erasers. We've had no training, we barely have any experience when it comes to fighting. This girl, she can obviously take care of herself - she's already taken out three of them. She'd be better off if we just left."

"Plus, who knows if we can trust her?" Cassie added. "Maybe she's really evil - maybe she'd just kill us once we helped her."

"What's wrong with you guys? They're winning - they're gonna _kill her!"_ I nearly shrieked. The girl heard me and glanced behind her before turning back to her fight.

"_Go away. Now._"

"We want to help you!" I said, managing to escape from Nico's grip and running forward.

The girl glared at me. "Listen to me! You don't want to help me! Just go away! Let them kill me, the world will be better off that way anyway!"

I glanced back at Nico. He scowled. Suddenly, Nikki cut in. "Maybe if we can get her away from the Erasers, we won't have to fight. We have to distract them somehow. Then we can save her." I looked at Nico. He nodded grudgingly.

"All right, I'll distract them, then you guys get her out of here. Got it?"

I nodded. "Be careful, Nico."

"What choice do I have?" he muttered.

"This isn't a good idea," Cassie said. "Who knows who this girl is?"

"Well, we can't let her die, can we?" I countered.

He ran off to our left. The Erasers didn't seem to have noticed our little exchange with the girl they were trying to kill. The Erasers had always been known as some of the stupidest hybrids. They had a one-track mind, only aware of their immediate mission. Which, currently, was to murder this girl.

The girl kept fighting the Erasers. I wasn't sure if she realized we were going to help her or not.

Just as an Eraser sliced across the girl's cheek, leaving deep gashes that began dripping blood immediately, a rock flew from the trees behind the Erasers, hitting one in the back of the head.

"Hey! Losers! Over here!" The Erasers eyes narrowed. He spun around, snarling. "Yeah, you! Freak!" I couldn't see Nico, and neither could the Erasers. He threw another rock, this time hitting one square in the back.

All the Erasers growled and started in Nico's direction. I gave a small laugh. I hadn't expected this to be that easy. I heard leaves and sticks shuffling as Nico jogged away, drawing the Erasers away from the girl and into the woods. Being light and fast, he'd be able to easily evade the Erasers.

Once they were in the trees, the rest of us started forward. The girl whirled around to look at us. "What are you doing? Why are you helping me? Go away, I'm serious! If you help me, you'll never be safe again." Her eyes were wild, staring at us.

I glanced at Nikki. She shook her head. "We never _were_ safe. And it's too late now. Come on."

I grabbed the girl's arm. We ran off into the woods, in the opposite direction of the Erasers.

"I'll stay behind to wait for Nico," Cassie said. I nodded.

"Be careful," I said again.

Then we were off. We ran until we reached a clearing, then we stopped to get our bearings and wait for Cassie and Nico.

The girl sat down and drew her knees to her chest. "You shouldn't have helped me. You don't understand. They're - they're gonna kill you. Just like -" She shuddered and hid her face in her knees. "Please - save yourselves. Just leave me here. Please."

I didn't know what to say. Shouldn't she be at least a little grateful? I mean, hadn't we just saved her lives? I didn't want to leave her here. So I said, "What's your name?"

"Cosaque," she answered simply. "Just call me C." Then she banged her fist on the ground. "God, why did I just tell you that?"

"Why were you fighting those Erasers? Who are you?" The girl sighed but didn't answer. I looked at Brendan helplessly.

"Just let her be for awhile," he suggested. "Maybe she's still in shock." The girl just glared at him.

**(Initiating overlong A/N): Yay! What'd you guys think? I'm scared of C being a Mary Sue, so if she's too Sue-ish for you, PLEASE tell me. Also, if you can, tell me how I can fix it, because I'm trying to stay away from cliches like Mary Sues and stuff like that. I'm also afraid of her becoming the main focus of the story. She's not. She's just another plot device. The real focus is probably gonna come in in the next couple chapters, when they meet up with Jeb and... some other people. ;) So if C is either too Sue-ish or has too much focus on her, tell me and I'll try to fix it. My friend thought of her, and I thought she was too good of an idea to keep out of the story, although I wish I would've made her come in a bit earlier. But it's too late now. :P They may end up separating for awhile so I can get the story more established, but I'm not sure. All right, please tell me what you thought! Bye! :)**


	11. Chapter 11: Not a Good Idea

**Cassie POV**

I knew from the beginning this wasn't a good idea. It wasn't until later on that I realized just how bad of an idea it really was. But our story isn't there yet, is it?

I watched the others run off into the woods and frowned anxiously. Lexi should've listened to me. In fact, I couldn't think of an instance in my entire life when she hadn't listened to me. She knew I was usually right; not to sound full of myself or anything. And I knew I was right this time - we shouldn't have helped that girl. Maybe it was just me and my inability to trust anyone I didn't know, but we didn't know anything about that girl. Plus, we could barely take care of ourselves. What made Alexis so sure we could take care of this girl, too? I didn't know where this new, rebellious, stubborn Alexis had come from, and I didn't like it.

It wasn't long before Nico came jogging casually out of the forest with a playful smirk on his face. "I have a feeling those guys are gonna be stuck in there for awhile," he said cheerfully, jabbing a thumb behind him, toward the forest. I grinned.

"So..." he said. "Where'd they go?"

"This way," I said grimly, and started to walk in the direction they'd gone.

"There a problem?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

"This isn't a good idea," I said for about the fiftieth time.

"I know," he said softly. "But when Alexis gets all self-righteous like this, I don't think we'll be able to change her mind."

I shook my head in frustration but said no more.

In about five minutes, we reached the clearing that the others were in. I scanned the clearing. Alexis was sitting against a tree and peeling the bark off a stick. Brendan and Mitchel were having a contest to see who could throw a rock the farthest into the woods. Nikki had laid out the map and was studying it closely, and the girl we'd saved sat in the middle of the clearing with her head buried in her knees.

Alexis looked up and said, "Hey, Cassie."

Mitchel noticed me and grinned happily. "Cassie!" He ran up and leaped into my arms.

I laughed. "I wasn't gone that long," I said, ruffling his hair. He just hugged me tighter.

I noticed the girl looking at me. Something like pain filled her eyes at the sight of Mitchel burying his face in my shirt, and she looked back down.

"Well, I guess there's no backing out now," I said with a sigh. "So what's your name?" She shook her head and didn't answer.

"It's C," Alexis supplied. I set Mitchel down and proceeded to walk slowly toward the girl.

"Well, _C,_" I said slowly. "What were you doing fighting those Erasers?"

She looked up, confused. "Erasers?"

"The creatures you were fighting," I said with a frown.

"Oh. We just call them Wolves where I'm from."

"_Aha._ So you're a mutant like us?"

She glared at me. "Why should I tell _you_ that?"

"Well, we _did_ save your life," I replied incredulously. "Don't you at least owe us that?"

She scowled. "I didn't ask for you to save me! In fact, I seem to recall telling you _not _to! Several times!"

"So now saving someone's life is a crime? I don't think I got the memo!" I was only a few feet from her now. She stood up angrily.

"You don't understand! The world would be better off without me, anyway! And they weren't _trying_ to kill me, they were trying to capture me!" She looked as if she wished she hadn't said that, but she stood her ground.

"Why were you fighting back if you didn't want anyone to help you?"

"Because- I'm not telling you that either. Look, this is none of your business! If you'd just left me alone, we wouldn't be in this mess in the first place!"

I glared pointedly at Alexis. She looked down sheepishly. "Well, I wasn't gonna let them ki- capture you! I may be a coward sometimes, but I'm not _that_ gutless!" I looked at her a little more softly.

C looked defeated. "Well... _Thanks, _I guess. I'll be going now." She turned to leave but gasped in pain as she tried to put weight on her right leg.

Nico looked concerned. "What's wrong with your leg?"

C looked a little embarrassed. "I.. fell."

"You _fell?_" I asked, trying not to snicker.

She glared at me and held her head a little higher. "Yes. Out of a tree." I raised an eyebrow. "The Erasers were chasing me," she explained. "Usually I can climb trees without a problem, but this time, I was in a hurry. I didn't notice that the branch I was stepping on was weak. It broke. And I fell." She looked around at us as if daring us to make fun of her. I held my snort in.

"Well, let me look at it," Nico offered.

"No - no, that's fine, I can take care of it." She tried to limp away, but collapsed with a yelp.

"I... think you should let me take a look at it," Nico said slowly.

She sent him a death glare, but finally muttered, "Fine."

**I know I didn't get much done in this chapter, sorry. I was kind of just going along with it without really planning it out. I'm actually kind of proud of this; I thought it was interesting at least. So... tell me what you thought? It's free! See ya!**


	12. Chapter 12: Sparring

**Nico POV**

C sat down on the ground and scowled up at me. I'd bought a first-aid kit in case we'd need it, so I pulled it out.

I knelt down next to her and felt her ankle, not sure what I was doing. When I touched her leg, she paled.

"I think it's just a sprain," I said gently. "But I don't think you should be walking for a while."

"I... have to. I can't stay here. I can take care of myself." I shrugged - it was her choice, really - and was about to stand up when something caught my eye. A tiny bit of orange poking out next to her shin.

"What's-"

"Hey, stop!" She tried to swat my hand away, but I pulled up her jean leg a little.

"Ha-ha!" Brendan cackled from where he'd been looking over my shoulder. "You have a _tail!_"

"Hey," Mitchel said, sounding hurt. "So do I..."

"Yeah, but hers is _orange!_"

"Wait - orange?" Alexis said incredulously. Indeed, C's tail was orange striped with black. "You're a tiger? Like Cassie?"

"But I don't have a tail," Cassie cut in.

C looked down. "Yeah. That's because... I'm 7 percent tiger. The whitecoats made us all a higher percentage of animal DNA. To make us stronger."

Cassie's eyes widened. "Who's us? And... wait, _stronger?_ You're..."

"You're a Perfect?" she and Lexi said together.

C looked at them blankly.

"You know," Cassie said, "a Perfect, the experiments at the School that the whitecoats treat better than all of us. They're better, stronger. You're one of them, aren't you?" She sounded almost accusing. I couldn't blame her. The Perfects were sort of what you'd consider the popular kids at normal school. Not only did they get special treatment from the whitecoats, but they didn't have to live in cages and they could fight better than most Erasers. Their powers made our powers look like silly magic tricks. They knew they were better than us and refused to even talk to us. We only saw them maybe once in a year because we were kept completely separate from them.

C looked defeated. "Fine. You win. Yeah, I'm a 'Perfect.'"

Cassie looked at her coldly and said nothing.

"Well, where're all the others, then?" I asked. "There are eight, aren't there?"

Suddenly, her voice was pure venom. "None. Of. Your. Business." I blinked. Apparently I'd hit a rough spot. "I have to go now." She got up to leave, but Alexis stopped her.

"Wait!" She looked almost panicked. "Can't you just stay for one night? You shouldn't be walking on that ankle."

C stared at her. "What? I thought you hated me and all of us _Perfects_," she nearly spat.

Alexis looked pained. "No, I don't. Cassie does. She hates almost everyone she meets. No offense, Cass," she added. "But I... don't want you to get hurt."

C scanned all of us slowly. "I don't know why I'm saying this, but... I guess one night couldn't hurt."

Alexis grinned. "Cool."

So we decided to stay in the clearing for the rest of the night and walk the rest of the way to meet Jeb tomorrow. I sat against a tree, reading a magazine again, while Brendan, Mitchel, and Cassie ran around and played tag. Alexis and C were talking, sitting cross-legged in the middle of the clearing with Alexis weaving a crown out of flowers. I looked around for Nikki and saw her walking up to me. "Hey, you wanna spar?"

"Sure." I'd always been a fairly good fighter, but every chance I got - which, admittedly, wasn't all that often - I tried to improve my skill. You probably think I'm horrible, agreeing to spar with a nine-year-old, but she, surprisingly, was really good too, maybe even better than me.

"So," Nikki said, throwing the first punch. I blocked it. "Alexis is trying to get info out of C." I raised an eyebrow, blocking another blow.

"Really?" I asked. "Wow. I wouldn't have expected that from her." I managed a square punch to her gut, which she mostly ignored.

"Yeah. You know, she likes her. She really did want her to stay," she said.

"I know," I said, worried. "I love her, but... she's too soft. If we're gonna survive, she needs to toughen up."

"I know."

We stopped talking for awhile, throwing punches and kicks back and forth, until I said brightly, "You're doing a good job as second-in-command, you know."

"Thanks."

"I hope we're not keeping Jeb waiting. Tomorrow we definitely have to find him."

"Okay."

**Sucky ending, I know. I wasn't sure how to end it. And sorry I didn't update yesterday. Can I just say that I didn't have access to the computer until, like 11:30? And then I was frickin' exhausted. I'm getting tired of disappearing off the face of the earth, though. I hope my failure to update hasn't annoyed you too much. :( Oh, and I know that in the beginning, the bio said that Cassie had a tail, but I took it away for the sake of the plot, and so that Brendan could make fun of C's tail without Cassie beating him up. Because you know she would. XD Anyway, I hope you liked this chapter, and I promise that in the next chapter the plot will get on course. See ya!**


	13. Chapter 13: Meetings

**Nikki POV**

After Nico and I sparred, it was beginning to get late, and our stomachs were growling like crazy. Nico made the executive decision that starting a campfire couldn't be too bad of an idea, so we had to try to figure out how to start a campfire. I'd never done anything like that before - the whitecoats probably hadn't expected us to need any survival skills.

So C, who, it turned out, had been on the run for at least four months longer than us and could build a fire with ease, taught us how. Soon, we had a roaring fire in the middle of our clearing and were cooking marshmallows over it. Even C.

So, the whole second-in-command thing - I loved it. I sometimes felt like the rest of the flock didn't really take me seriously, mostly just 'cause I was young. But now, I felt a new... _power._ I'd never been one for a lot of words, so I hadn't expected I'd be good at anything like this, but Nico seemed to think I was. And it made me want to smile, something I just don't do much anymore.

When we were about to settle down for bed, we realized we were short a sleeping bag. C didn't seem to mind, but before anyone could say anything, Mitchel blurted out, "I'll sleep with Cassie!"

Now, let me begin by saying that my mind-reading is not always a good thing. For example, the times when Brendan, being the immature moron he is, was just learning some... _inappropriate_ terms. I'm not sure where he learned it - I wouldn't put it past an Eraser, really. But I made the mistake of reading his mind, and I don't think I'll ever be the same. He tried to explain it to Alexis and Cassie, but Cassie slapped him and told him to grow up before Alexis could catch on.

So now I understood why Brendan was cracking up and Cassie was scowling at him. I didn't _exactly _know what it meant to "sleep with" someone, but I knew enough to send Brendan a disapproving glance. He tried to regain his composure.

"Sure, Mitchel," Cassie said, glaring at Brendan. "And C can have your sleeping bag." Nico and Alexis were looking around, completely confused, and Mitchel was oblivious to the whole situation. I decided to just ignore them.

The next morning, I was shaken awake gently by Nico. "Come on, Nikki. We've gotta get going if we want to get to Jeb today." I nodded and sat up, rubbing my eyes and yawning. We stood and woke the others one by one, and then stopped at C.

"What about her?" I asked. "Is she coming with us or not?"

"I don't recall that being in the plan," Nico said slowly. "So I guess not." We woke her up by gently shaking her shoulder.

"C, are you coming with us to meet Jeb?" I asked. Her eyes widened.

"Did you say _Jeb?_" she asked in alarm.

"Uh... yeah?" She knew him?

C looked around at the others. Alexis looked sad to see her go.

"Please come with us, C?" Mitchel begged, surprising me.

She hesitated. "I-I really can't." She sounded almost sorrowful. "I mean, I guess... I don't really have anywhere else to go. Fine. Yeah, I'll come."

Alexis raised her eyebrows. "Awesome! Yay!"

"Don't say 'yay,' Lexi," Cassie said, playfully slapping her in the back of the head. "It makes you seem weak." Alexis scowled after her as she walked away.

I found myself reading C's mind. I hadn't expected her to agree to come with us, what with her alarm yesterday at us saving her. When I read her mind, I could only figure out one sentence before we had to get going. "_They know Jeb?"_

We set off. It was still pretty early in the morning; the sun was just barely peeking over the trees. If we kept up this pace, we should be there by noon. _But where is "there?" _I wondered. _What does Jeb want with us?_

The rest of the morning passed mostly uneventfully. We hadn't eaten breakfast, so our stomachs were practically eating themselves by the time we were within a mile of where Jeb had said to meet him.

"You guys, be careful," Nico warned. "For all we know, this could be a trap. Just stay close and be ready for a fight." We slowed down but continued to press cautiously forward. Soon, the sound of people arguing reached us. Nico and I shared a glance. With a final couple steps and a branch from a tree pushed out of the way, eight figures came into view. And... a _dog?_

"Ah," came Jeb's smooth, calm voice. "You've made it. Meet Nico, Alexis, Cassie, Brendan, Nikki, Mitchel, and... Cosaque," he added with a frown. "You guys, meet Max. And her flock."


	14. Chapter 14: Flashbacks: Part 1

**Okay, so this chapter is the first in a series of flashbacks from C's POV, occurring every few chapters. They will help to explain her past and describe how she got to where she is now. I'm not sure yet if these will be the only chapters in C's POV. She's not in our actual flock, so I can't decide. But I'll figure that out later.**

Oh, also. I thought I'd shout out to a few people who have been helping me out with this story and these characters. So... hi Peebers, Cirian, Emily, Tiggy, Panda, and Tarah! You guys rock! Sorry, I just had to do that. So anyway, enjoy!

C POV

(Setting: one year before, in a room in the School)

Their sleeping forms were much more peaceful than in wakefulness. My friends, my family, were each sprawled on their cots, breathing softly as they slept.

Little Brooke, only four, looked a lot less dangerous asleep than awake. When she wasn't sleeping, she could probably take out a whole army if she wanted to. We all could; that's the way we were made. Brooke usually hid her dangerous core with a mask of innocence that could fool even the smartest person. But we knew better. The five-percent-fox was not to be messed with.

Then there was eight-year-old Chris. Or Bubbles, as we liked to call him. It was sort of an inside joke. When he was younger, we made up the nickname Bubbles just to bug him - it worked - since he was part fish. Yeah. We don't get it either. I wasn't sure whose idea it had been to try combining fish and human DNA - perhaps a drunken dare - but the result was a super-strong and fully intelligent aqua-boy who could only stay out of water for about three hours before he had to breathe water again. We kept him in a tank most of the time, except for when he slept, when he inexplicably didn't need to be in the water.

Adam was eleven. He was part lion and one of the nicest people I'd ever met. Which wasn't really saying much since I hadn't met too many people in my life. But still, Adam was this really sweet kid who pretty much everyone couldn't help but like. He wasn't the strongest among us, but he wasn't the weakest either.

And then there was Tally. There wasn't much I could say for Tally except for that she was a little... off. Not necessarily in a bad way, really, but she had the tendency to spout out random comments here and there, and then there were the times when she would just zone out for no particular reason. Personally, I'd always thought she liked the attention that these things brought on, but that was just a theory. Anyway, it was a pretty endearing quality, on top of the fact that the twelve-year-old was pretty adorable, with olive skin and dark hair. She was five percent osprey, an animal kind of like an eagle.

Leon, who was about to turn thirteen in two days, was the most... aggressive out of all of us. He liked to fight, but he by far wasn't the strongest among us. He seemed to be the one who enjoyed our position as the most important inhabitants of the School the most. Being part eagle, which was so similar to an osprey, it was like Leon and Tally were literally made for each other, but it seemed at the moment that Tally was the only one who felt that way for him.

In the next bed was Lucy, my twin sister. We were thirteen, and almost exactly alike in every way, except her appearance was lighter than mine. While I had dark brown hair and dark eyes, she had striking blond hair - the whitecoats may have dyed it to be able to tell us apart - and light blue eyes. Our faces looked the same; we were identical twins. Also, her DNA was white tiger, snow tiger, while I was an Indian tiger. We acted the same sometimes, but she was goofier than me, while I was serious a lot of the time.

I lay in between Lucy and David. My David. We'd been dating for... how long was it now? A couple months? I wasn't exactly sure; we didn't exactly keep track. He was part bear, panda to be exact, but don't let that fool you. He was a strategic and strong fighter, fourteen years old. He and Adam were best friends.

I won't pretend that we loved it here. We'd heard of the way other kids, normal kids were, and we couldn't help but envy them. But it was definitely better than the other experiments were treated. Kept in cages, barely fed... I couldn't even think about it. I felt guilty sometimes, that we were treated so specially while they were treated like they had no soul, but I knew that if we even tried to speak out for them they'd kill us immediately. We weren't indispensable. Just useful.

And we couldn't forget that. Just because they let us believe we were special, we were just another piece of equipment to them. They didn't care about us. No matter how much they told us they did. It was all just a huge scam to get us to cooperate.

And sometimes, I didn't mind. But right now, seeing all their sleeping, innocent faces, young faces that shouldn't be used as weapons, I hated the whitecoats more than anything.


	15. Chapter 15: Playing Well With Others

**Oh, jeez. I'm in trouble, aren't I? The truth is, school has been incredibly hectic this week, and I can't apologize enough. To be honest, I'm getting extremely tired of having to give excuses every time I don't update. I guess I'm a naturally irresponsible person or something... But I've decided that the updating-on-Tuesday-and-Friday thing is going to become a GOAL but not necessarily a GUARANTEE. I just can't deal with the stress, guys. So if I don't end up updating on the set day, I will definitely end up making up for it. So basically, you can expect two updates from me a week. Hopefully, they'll be on Tuesdays and Fridays, but if that doesn't end up happening, I'll still post the chapter at some point. So instead of posting two chapters today, I'll update again tomorrow. I hope that's okay. :) Oh, and I forgot to mention that this story would've happened after MAX but before FANG. So Fang never left. One more thing: I know this chapter is short, but it's getting late and I have to update another story after this, so I don't have much time. Anyway, I suppose you probably would like to find a chapter hidden somewhere underneath this huge author's note, so here you go!**

Mitchel POV

Jeb gave us a friendly smile and beckoned us forward. We cautiously moved toward him, examining his companions suspiciously. From what I could tell, they were a bunch of kids. The one he had called Max was giving us a distrustful glare. Had we done something wrong?

The dark-haired boy standing close behind her was looking at us with a guarded expression with perhaps a bit less malice than his female companion.

There was another, paler boy, who looked about the same age as them, a younger, darker girl, and two young, blond kids that looked to be about my and Nikki's ages. Off to the side stood another, dirty-blond boy, looking somewhat like an outcast. At the blond girl's feet stood a stout black dog who was panting happily.

"Guys, this is Max, Fang, Iggy, Nudge, Gazzy, Angel, Dylan, and Total." What a mouthful.

Nico got right to the point. "What do you want with us? Why did you set us free?"

"I'll explain everything soon. A more pressing question is, what are you doing here, Cosaque? Why aren't you with the others?"

She frowned at him. Her gaze was trusting and familiar, as if she'd known him for a long time. "Jeb, they've been lying to us this whole time. They - they're trying to turn us into monsters. And th-they killed-" Her voice cracked. Brendan looked at Nico, puzzled.

"I know, Cosaque. Trust me, they'll get hell from me for that." She only nodded, looking down. "Now." Jeb gestured to a building behind him that I'd been too preoccupied to notice. "Why don't you come inside and I'll explain everything?" Nico looked at Nikki and then nodded.

The others followed Jeb inside, and we filed in behind him. Inside was just a cozy cabin with two comfy-looking sofas and not much else. There were a couple doors around the room that I assumed led to bedrooms and stuff like that.

"Would you guys like something to eat?" Jeb asked.

Max and Nico replied, "Sure," at the same time, provoking glares from each other.

"All right." He pulled down a few bags of chips and passed them to us.

The cabin was a bit too small for so many people... Is that sixteen? I wasn't sure, I still couldn't really do math. But still, the cabin was kind of stuffy. I followed Brendan to one of the couches and squeezed up next to him so Cassie could sit next to me. Alexis joined us and the others managed to cram in next to her. Jeb sat across from us. The younger set from the other flock - and the dog - joined him while the other four stood.

"Okay. So - this is a lot to explain in one sitting, so please just bear with me. Max and her flock - they have been working for the past year to save the world from a powerful global force called Itex. They've been doing well so far. But they can't do this alone. Already, Itex is beginning to gain power again. I decided that they need help. And that's where you guys come in."

"Wait," Nico said. "You're not suggesting - _save the world?_ We can barely spell."

"And that's why," Jeb explained, "Max and the flock are going to train you. To fight, to do everything they're having to do in this battle."

Max seemed just as shocked as Nico.

_"What?"_ she said. "Jeb, these kids seem great. But we can't _train_ anybody. How many instances can you think up of _us_-" she gestured around her to her flock, "-playing well with others?"

"I'm sure you'll figure something out," he replied with a knowing smirk.


	16. Chapter 16: Starting Over

**Okay, so I found a mistake. I said it took place between MAX and FANG, but then I realized that Dylan wasn't in MAX. So let's just say that in this story Fang never left, okay?**

Cassie POV

I was _not _happy about this. First, we had to take in that C girl, and _now_ we had to be _trained_ by this pack of dimwits? I didn't even think that pale one could _see._ And the tall blond one who kept glancing at the leader girl? He looked just plain _dumb._ Was this really the reason we'd been let out of the School? If Jeb expected me to go along happily with this, he was gonna be sorely disappointed. Then again, Jeb didn't know me. He was in for a couple surprises...

Speaking of knowing Jeb, how did C know him? It was obvious, really. All the times he'd visited our School - I assumed there must be others out there - he hadn't hung around in our department for too long. Now that I thought about it, every time I'd seen him he was heading toward the Perfects.

I glanced at the others. Just as I had expected, they didn't seem too happy about this, either. And now that I thought about it, neither did the Dimwits - I decided that was what I was gonna call them.

I'd always had this trait. I considered it _endearing,_ but the others didn't think so. See, I had a habit of, as they say, judging a book by its cover. And these books did not impress me. I'm sure they were great kids, but I didn't like the idea of them training us like they were better than us - which, I grudgingly admitted, they probably were. Their heads seemed big enough as they were.

I spoke up. "Well, I, for one, don't think this is a good idea."

"I'm afraid you don't have a choice," Jeb said shortly. "Unless you'd like to go back to your dog crate."

Even the girl he'd called Max seemed surprised at Jeb's tone - he didn't seem the type to snap.

He continued, "Max, you guys will each be assigned a flock member to train-" he held up a finger as Max started to complain, "_-whether_ you like it or not. Got it?" She narrowed her eyes but nodded.

"So Max, you'll train Nico. Fang, Cassie. Iggy, Alexis. Gazzy, Brendan. Nudge, Nikki. Angel, Mitchel. And Dylan - well, actually, I think it might be better if Cosaque trained _you._ Is that okay?" He looked at Dylan, who nodded. He seemed to be the least unwilling out of all of them.

Jeb looked at C. "Jeb, I can't stay for long. They can't find me." She looked at us to make sure we didn't know what she was talking about, and she was not disappointed.

Jeb sighed. "Cosaque, I think it would be best if you stayed with us for a while. I'll make sure you're safely hidden."

C scowled, but it was obvious Jeb had some sort of authority over her, because she nodded resignedly.

"All right. We don't have to train today, but why don't you guys get to know each other?" Nico, Max, and I scowled, but of course, he wouldn't take no for an answer. He ushered us outside. "If you guys get hungry, there's lots of food in there, and behind the cabin there are several others where you guys can sleep. Okay?" He nodded in approval and went back into the cabin. I looked at the one who was supposed to train me - Fang, wasn't it?

There was an awkward silence, and then he said, "I'm not any happier about this than you are, okay? I think the best we can do is just not make this harder for each other than it already is." Jeez, he didn't beat around the bush. I nodded cheerfully. I might like this guy. "Cool."

Alexis came up to me. "Hey, C is hungry."

"Good for her," I replied scathingly.

She scowled. "Be a good mutant and go with her to find something to eat, okay? She's been nothing but nice to you."

I raised my eyebrows. "I beg to differ."

"Oh, just go with her. You know you're hungry too." I reluctantly led C back into the cabin. "You want a sandwich?"

She shrugged. "Fine."

"Well, I don't make sandwiches."

She raised an eyebrow. "Then what do you make?"

"Water," I replied, filling a glass and slamming it down in front of her. Instead of getting angry, she just laughed.

"You know, I'm not even hungry. I just wanted to talk to you. Plus, I really don't feel like 'getting to know' anyone."

"What did you want to talk about?"

"I wanted to say that since we're sort of in the same flock now, I figure we should at least try to tolerate each other. So... what do you say we start over?" I examined her face, but it didn't look like she was making fun of me or anything. She held out her hand.

I sighed and slowly nodded, taking her hand. "Fine." She gave me a small smile.


End file.
